pler her toilet was the more interesting she looked.

After I had left the theatre, I went to sup at Silvia's and returned to
the hotel. I was surprised at the sight of an elegant carriage; I
enquired to whom it belonged, and I was told that it was the carriage of
a young nobleman who had supped with Mdlle. Vesian. She was getting on.

The first thing next morning, as I was putting my head out of the window,
I saw a hackney coach stop at the door of the hotel; a young man, well
dressed in a morning costume, came out of it, and a minute after I heard
him enter the room of Mdlle. Vesian. Courage! I had made up my mind; I
affected a feeling of complete indifference in order to deceive myself.

I dressed myself to go out, and while I was at my toilet Vesian came in
and told me that he did not like to go into his sister's room because the
gentleman who had supped with her had just arrived.

"That's a matter of course," I said.

"He is rich and very handsome. He wishes to take us himself to
Versailles, and promises to procure some employment for me."

"I congratulate you. Who is he?"

"I do not know."

I placed in an envelope the papers she had entrusted to me, and I handed
them to him to return to his sister. I then went out. When I came home
towards three o'clock, the landlady gave me a letter which had been left
for me by Mdlle. Vesian, who had left the hotel.

I went to my room, opened the letter, and read the following lines:

"I return the money you have lent me with my best thanks. The Count de
Narbonne feels interested in me, and wishes to assist me and my brother.
I shall inform you of everything, of the house in which he wishes me to
go and live, where he promises to supply me all I want. Your friendship
is very dear to me, and I entreat you not to forget me. My brother
remains at the hotel, and my room belongs to me for the month. I have
paid everything."

"Here is," said I to myself, "a second Lucie de Pasean, and I am a second
time the dupe of my foolish delicacy, for I feel certain that the count
will not make her happy. But I wash my hands of it all."

I went to the Theatre Francais in the evening, and enquired about
Narbonne. The first person I spoke to told me,

"He is the son of a wealthy man, but a great libertine and up to his neck
in debts."

Nice references, indeed! For a week I went to all the theatres and public
places in the hope of making the acquaintance of the count, but I could
not